Category: Sunday Mornings

It is a restful weekend for us. After a week filled with work, day care tours, pediatrician meetings and baby classes, we are lying low as we wait for an oncoming late August heat wave.

Hope everyone in South Texas is hanging in there. My family has first hand experience with hurricane wreckage (twice, unfortunately). It’s always hard to watch others go through it. Stay safe and dry out there, Texans. My heart goes out to you.

And now some reading material:

Cinefamily was a hot topic this week amongst the LA film community. I heard grumblings of the hostile work environment from former employees last year and was glad to hear women were speaking up against harassment. It takes great strength and courage to do so. For the story, read here and here.

I was in the grocery store earlier this week when suddenly the power went out. I was in the back corner near the deli, milk and bread, so when the power went out it was dark (see photo above).Although only about a minute, it felt much longer before the emergency lighting came on. It was completely and eerily silent. In that moment, I wondered if this was due to some larger event and my adrenaline kicked in. “Do I know where the emergency exit is?” I thought. No one knew what was going on and yet everyone remained calm and quiet. A few people grumbled of Korea/Trump and others felt totally inconvenienced. As people began abandoning their shopping carts, it felt like a scene out of a zombie movie. In the end, it was only a major neighborhood power outage, so no need to fret. I stood in what little light came through the front doors waiting to see if I could pay for my groceries and took in the strange peacefulness of a dark and empty grocery store. That I even had a thought of more danger now seems ridiculous, but that’s how anxiety works. How sad that I even considered the worst while in the midst of such mundane tasks.

While I hoped to be more of an escape for you today, it doesn’t feel appropriate. Keeping it short with only a few links, so that you spend more of your day with someone you love.

In regards to Virginia, may I recommend a very topical documentary, ICYMI: Welcome to Leith (2015). Watch it here or here. Trailer below.

I’m spending long days watching film submissions (shorts and doc features) lately. Let’s be clear, most of these films are not comedies. If they are, they aren’t often that funny. So between that and the news lately, eek! Talk about a bleak world. To be sitting and feeling this baby kick during screening or reading the headlines only adds to my anxiety. It’s a rough world out there and finding some sort of escape amongst reality has been tough to say the least.

We’re also in the long stretch of summer and the heat is playing with my head. I’m doing everything I can to not eat ice cream regularly. I’m tempted daily to make a giant peach cobbler (because the yellow peaches here have been ah-mazing lately), but fear of eating it all by myself in one – maybe two – sittings. Something’s gotta give. Today may be the day where I go for it. What do you think?

Grab a piece of juicy fruit and take a break with some Sunday morning reading:

A mashup of two of my favorite things: Sesame Street and Beastie Boys. (And yes those are clips of Follow That Bird (1985), a film that made a HUGE impact on me. Lots of crying when Big Bird is turned blue (still to this day).)

Our favorite BBQ joint in Dallas, Pecan Lodge, has teamed up with Williams Sonoma for a new BBQ sauce. IF we do sauce in our house, it’s usually homemade, but may have to make an exception and try this.

Last time I wrote a Sunday Mornings post, I mentioned we were in escrow on a house. The exciting update is that we closed on it and moved in. (Side story: In the eleventh hour, this blog somehow help make the closing happen. The lender needed “online proof” that I was real, as though ALL the financial statements from every client, tax, receipt, or bank statement we sent was not enough. That and E’s IMDb page. Thus the life of a 1099 worker trying to buy a house in the 21st century. Absurd.) Homeownership has already kicked us around a bit and there’s still plenty of projects ahead. (If you know a great Los Angeles-based contractor to recommend, we are in need and all-ears.)

Within 36 hours of moving, we flew to Seattle for a week of SIFF activities and my sister-in-law’s graduation from nursing school. Will be posting about the festival fun soon.

Also, during these last three weeks, E and I learned I’m pregnant with a baby girl. That’s the other major-life-event that’s been happening in our world. We told many of our loved ones in person or over-the-phone when possible the past two months and only recently put it on social media. Being pregnant has been a surreal experience. The news itself was somewhat a shock to us (another story for an offline convo if you’re interested). Between the house hunting and work-filled spring season, I haven’t spent a lot of time letting the news sink in. Not to say that the emotions haven’t been there, because good. lord. the hormonal shifts are real/awful. Now halfway through this pregnancy and living in a new home, this new chapter is starting to sink in …and whoa. If you asked me in January what my summer would look like, this is NOT what I would consider it to be. I am excited, but cautious. Unsettled, but hopeful. And most of the time, just trying to remember to breathe every few seconds.

I hope this Father’s Day is a good one for you and your families. If you can spend time with yours, that’s amazing. (Facetiming the Captain will have to do for me.) If not, then perhaps toast in his honor. (Cheers to you, Tim. You raised one helluva man, who I’m excited to watch become a great father himself.)

As I consider our new house layout and what furniture works where, it means I am spending more time on interior design blogs. I feel like much of what I find is created for Pinterest and not actually liveable space. Also, it’s as though people forget how expensive all this decor can be. A very frustrating process. (Yes, #firstworldproblems.) I appreciated Emily Henderson’s honesty in this post on the “Effortless Expensive California Casual” look.

Have you been watching Twin Peaks? I’m loving how dark and FUNNY it is. Also, the plot is moving so incredibly slow, but I’m still fascinated. #CaseFiles

More soon. Although “soon” is used loosely these days.
Hope your day is filled with good coffee, smiles and a little laziness.

As you may have noticed, it’s been a bit quiet around here this month. Life has thrown a few curveballs and this blog has sadly taken a back burner in my brain. As I hinted at two weeks ago, E and I are in the midst of two major life events. The one I feel comfortable sharing at the moment is: we’re in escrow on a house. We were originally expecting to close this week, but between delays from the seller, broker and bank, things have been pushed more than once. Sadly, it is how this (absurd) process works, but when you’re mentally prepared to leave a place (and pack half your household in boxes) only to be delayed two more weeks… By Friday we felt frustrated, defeated and majorly disappointed. There was ice cream eating.

We’ve spent the weekend refreshing our mindset, planning and organizing around a new timeline and spending it with friends and respected colleagues that we love. Last night on the much cooler west side of the city, we enjoyed a laid-back and intimate dinner with colleagues of Eric (all filmmakers, two of them writers on Homeland which created some interesting convo given the news this week – and last night’s latest.) Today, our neighbor, Brendan, breaks in his new smoker, Lil’ (shown above) and we’ll be enjoying the fruits (err…meats) of his labor. A few close friends will join us for this final BBQ in this home.

Given the situation, I’ve spent spent most of my online time shopping for appliances and researching city permits/contractors (and starting Denver submission screening and viewing Cinema Eye Honor broadcast screeners), so links are on the thinner side this morning. I’ll be sipping my coffee and reading a few myself before making cole slaw.

Is the gig economy working? This article is one of the better reads on this topic because it actually discusses the economics around employee vs. contract benefits. The gig economy is not going away, so something has to change to serve the those in the 1099 paid world when it comes to benefits, PFL, vacation, healthcare etc. Plenty of corporations already take advantage of the labor system in that way (E and I can attest to that first hand). Something has to give.

It’s a rainy-like, cool first weekend of May here (and apparently in Yosemite too), so I’ve only been half-productive with my time. I’m mostly dreaming of next weekend when I finally have a proper vacation in one of my favorite places in California, celebrating my one year wedding anniversary with E.

While work is in a bit of a lull, personal life has been crazy town the last few months (with various announcements to come over the next month). Unplugging – and no cell phone service – for a long weekend will help.

Before I do unplug, here are a few highlights that piqued my interested online since my last Sunday Morning post. Curious to hear your thoughts in the comments.

The media bubble is real. This interesting article speaks to why that is: where the journalism industry jobs are, the overall shift from print publishing to online publishing and the economics behind specialized industry clusters.

I have to admit, I am intrigued by the Fyre Festival epic meltdown. In event production world, it has been all anyone is posting about (besides health care, of course). My favorite piece is still Chloe Gordon’s account. Forgetting to make people sign NDAs: amateur and crazy dumb. So many awful bros making so many ignorant and ego-driven decisions.

Cup of Jo ran a great series in April with food industry experts. Here’s a summary of their favorite tips.

While we were multi-tasking on something random, I streamed Blank Check (1994) for Eric. I hadn’t seen it since I was a kid and man, oh man, it is super creepy. In regards to the FBI agent: what grown-ass woman would flirt with a child? And if the roles were reversed and it was a man with a 12-year-old girl – nope, the movie would not be made. Ick. Ick. Ick.

It is Earth Day weekend and nothing like a heat wave in Los Angeles to remind you of climate change! E is away for a bachelor party and I’m enjoying some quality solo time. I decided to head west for the cool ocean air.

I found myself first near LAX, at a park watching planes take off and land. It is a weird quirk, but I am strangely fascinated by watching them. Then I explored Marina del Rey, finding a spot in a park to lay down under a tree and watch boats (err, yachts) come in and out of the harbor. After the past few months, I found a close kinship with a nearby sea lion (as shown above with a buddy), who only moved once… to sneeze.

I only got through about season 2 of Girls before moving on to other shows, so I have not watched the last episode or season obviously and read this article prepared for the spoilers. Valid points made and hitting home to me. I wonder how much of the ending was influenced by Apatow. Your thoughts?

I’ve been drinking a lot of lemonade lately as spring has sprung. This cucumber lemonade will be next.